The Influences in Our Lives
by Hypnotoad76
Summary: Annie visits Jeff to see how he's doing after seeing his father.


Jeff sat on his couch just staring off into space. He wasn't exactly sleeping; it was more not moving without any conscious thought. He was exhausted. The day had drained him, and he needed to recharge. If he had his way, he would sit there with no contact from anyone until classes on Monday.

Unfortunately, his wish was immediately shattered when he heard a light knocking. Reluctantly, Jeff dragged himself off the couch and went to the door. "Britta, you better not be out there. I really don't need any more-." He stopped speaking when he opened the door and saw that the person behind it was definitely not Britta.

"Hi," Annie said in a soft voice.

"Hey," he said, surprised.

"I was going to call, but I wasn't sure if you'd answer. Can I come in?" she asked.

Jeff stepped aside, allowing Annie to walk in. While he closed the door, she took a few seconds to gather her thoughts before turning to him. "How are you?"

"You mean how am I doing after what I went through today?" Jeff collapsed on the couch as Annie sat down next to him. "I'm too drained to fully process it yet."

Annie nodded her head in agreement as she looked at Jeff. "If you want I can go. I just wanted to make sure you were okay after today."

Jeff looked over at Annie, ready to tell her she could leave. But as much as it shocked him, he didn't mind it that much if she was here right now. While he was perfectly fine with being by himself, somehow he felt a little better having her there. "You can stay. Just don't try and analyze me or try to get me to have any more breakthroughs. I already went through enough of that with Britta. I don't need anymore."

"I'm not going to do that Jeff. I get how hard it is dealing with parents after they've abandoned you. I'm not going to push you if you're not ready." She took a breath as she readied herself to say something that's been on her mind for a while. "I know Britta means well, but I really don't think she should have pushed you to see your dad like that if you weren't ready."

Jeff thought about that for a moment before responding.

"Maybe it wasn't so bad that she pushed me," he admitted. "I hated it, but I needed to confront my dad and let him know what he did to me. And I never would have done that without someone pushing me. Don't get me wrong, she annoys the hell out of me. But I needed to see my dad, and I never would have gone back there if not for Britta."

"Gone back?" Annie asked.

Jeff groaned as he rubbed his eyes. "Let's just say I got to the door and turned around and left. Then I found out Britta went there herself and I had to go back."

"Really?" Annie said in surprise. "She went to your dad's behind your back and made you go back there?"

"Basically."

"See, that's what I mean. I know she means well, but that was way over the line. If she was a therapist and did that to a patient-."

"She would have been stripped of her license, I'm well aware of that," Jeff said. "And for the sake of herself and others I really hope she dials it back once she an actual therapist." He leaned back on the couch as he tried to voice what he was thinking. "I know she went overboard trying to help. But I think sometimes you need that kind of help from someone. Britta's help is kind of like a sledgehammer. She keeps pounding away at you until she breaks through your resistance. Sometimes it does more damage, while other times it makes room for growth. While when you help someone…" He struggled to properly find the right phrase before it came to him. "With you it's like an IV drip. Your advice and influence gradually works its way into your system until you find that you're better without even realizing it. So while both methods are different, at different times one works better than the other. And Britta's constant meddling helped me go back to him today and finally tell him what he did to me."

"Well, I'm glad you were able to tell your dad what you had to say. Even if I still iffy with how it happened." Annie said.

"It's just how she is," Jeff said. "Britta's like a sister to me. One who annoys me to no end and who I love ripping on, but who helps me in the most reluctant ways possible. Just like Shirley's the sister I have nothing in common with on the surface, but can get me in a way I never would have guessed." He looked off in the distance as he seemed to almost be talking out loud rather than to Annie. "I guess, since we're kind of like a family, we've adopted different roles to suit each other. Abed and Troy are like younger brothers who drive me crazy, but who I can't help but love and want to stick up for. Pierce is the inappropriate uncle who I've begrudgingly grown to care for. And the Dean is the creepy cousin who wouldn't mind having sex with me."

"Ew, Jeff."

He looked down at her, seeming to remember she was there. "It's true. If he's a family member that's his role, which is why I'm getting a restraining order once I've graduated."

"What about me?" she asked. "Where do I fit in in your family cast?"

Jeff was silent as he looked at Annie, feeling a multitude of emotions towards her. "The jury's still out on that one," he simple said. Annie's eyes widened a little as she took in what he meant by not immediately assigning her a role, but didn't push for him to elaborate.

Jeff was silent as he glanced at Annie, remembering what had happened a few weeks ago, and what led to him deciding to see his dad in the first place. While he had sworn he wouldn't say anything, somehow he felt it was only right to give Annie her due credit in this matter. Especially after not assigning her a role in how he felt about her. "Annie…"

She looked over at Jeff as she saw him hesitate. "What?"

"I never would have seen my dad if it wasn't for you."

"Wait, what?" she said in confusion. "I thought you just said Britta-."

"Britta made me go back after I chickened out. But I never would have called him in the first place if it wasn't for you."

"How…what did I do?" she asked with curiosity.

Jeff paused as he thought about the whole turn of events before beginning. "Well, at first I was going to call my dad on Halloween. I'd had his number for a while, and after what Gilbert said about Pierce and their father I wanted to confront him while I still had the chance. But when I tried to call him that night I couldn't. I sat there with my phone in one hand and his number in the other and didn't do anything. And I thought I just could never go through with it."

"So…what happened that made you change your mind?" Annie asked.

"It was when you pretended we were married at the Inspector Spacetime convention."

"Wait, that…how did…?"

"When I went up to your room and saw all the stuff you did to prove that we were 'married', I waited to become panicky over the idea of being in a committed relationship like that. But it never came. I'm not saying I'll get married or anything. But, for the first time I wasn't completely against the idea of marriage or even long term commitment.

"But, later on when I was lying in bed, I started thinking of my parents, and how things fell apart for them and how it made me the person I am. And I realized I wouldn't have a chance of…having an actual relationship with someone until I dealt with what has made me so afraid to care. So I called my dad, and…you pretty much know the rest. So yes, Britta's annoying pushing helped me deal with it once and for all. But your subtle influence made it possible."

Annie blinked her eyes before tears could form, truly touched at hearing that she had somehow helped in Jeff confronting his demons. "Glad I could help." She smiled warmly at him before it dissolved into seriousness. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but how bad was it?"

"Honestly? At first it wasn't that bad. We agreed not to hug or talk about anything sentimental. Then my half-brother kept freaking out because he seemed to prefer me to him. And then…he actually said I turned out better because he left than I would have if he had stayed."

Annie's eyes widened in shock at what she had just been told. "Jeff…I can't believe…what did you do?"

"The short version? I told him to go to hell, left, and then came back and let him know how messed up I was because of his 'parenting'."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't really say anything. He tried faking a heart attack to get out of it, but he didn't yell or try to defend or explain himself. He didn't even try to justify it." Jeff chuckled darkly at how things went after he said his piece. "I've spent all this time imagining what he would say if I ever got the chance to tell him off, and in the end it just seemed…"

"Anticlimactic?" Annie tentatively guessed.

"Yeah."

"That's how life sometimes is Jeff," she said. "When you confront someone on how they've hurt or abandoned you, it doesn't always lead to a huge confession or a blowout. Sometimes they just don't have an answer for what they did. That's what happened…." she trailed off before she could voice her thoughts.

"What?" Jeff asked.

"Forget it. I don't want to make this about me."

"No, what were you going to say?"

Annie waited a moment before she dove right back in. "I was going to say, that's what happened when I confronted my dad on Thanksgiving two years ago." She looked at Jeff to see his reaction, but he simply gave her a look that urged her to continue. "I usually go to my aunt on my dad's side for Thanksgiving, and whenever I see him there we never really talk about anything important, like him leaving or rehab or anything. And I always hated how things just kept building between us without ever saying anything. So finally two years ago I just pulled him aside and brought it all up. I asked him how he could have just left me with mom, and never bothered to be there for me while she was belittling me, or offered to help me after she kicked me out. And he didn't have any real answers. He just kind of looked at me with this hurt expression." She sniffed loudly as the memories of that night came back to her. "I still felt better after I finally got it out. But I wanted him to give me a reason for turning his back on me, and he couldn't even do that."

Jeff only hesitated for a moment before he reached over and placed his hand on her arm. She glanced at his hand before looking up into his eyes. They held their gaze until he glanced downward, only to pick his head back up and keep looking at her. While she couldn't put her finger on why, somehow she knew this gesture meant much more than it appeared.

After several moments Jeff pulled his hand back as Annie adjusted herself so she was more comfortable. "Just out of curiosity, why were you going to your Aunt's for Thanksgiving if you already told your dad off?" he asked.

"I'd rather not be alone on Thanksgiving. And we pretty much just ignored each other last year, so I figured I could do the same thing." She chuckled as the events of the day passed through her eyes. "Although after what happened today at Shirley's I almost wish I went to my aunt's. At least there I could have hid in a spare bedroom when things got uncomfortable."

"It was that bad at Shirley's?"

"At one point I tried faking a 'lady problem' to try and escape. Turns out her sister in law is a gynecologist. I've battled a pill addiction and crashing through a plate glass window, and I'd still rather remember that then what ended up happening."

She looked over at Jeff as he let out an involuntary chuckle. "Sorry, it's not funny. It's just, talk about your worst case scenarios."

"Let's never talk about this again," Annie said as she shuttered over the memory.

"Works for me," he said.

"And that was just one thing that happened. I haven't even gotten to Abed pretending we were in a prison movie and digging a hole through Shirley's garage, or Troy almost convincing us to eat rancid garbage dip, or Pierce's _many_ offensive entertainment bits that he performed for everyone."

Jeff shook his head at hearing the insanity he had missed that day. "Wow. That…almost sounds kind of fun. At least compared to my Thanksgiving."

Annie chuckled as the events of the day ran through her head. "It kind of was. The whole day was still terrible. But the best parts were when we were in the garage hiding out. We kept taking turns with Shirley's family, and would go back to the garage whenever we could. In there with just me, Troy Abed and Pierce, it wasn't as miserable."

Jeff thought about what she said, about a terrible situation not being as bad because she was with the group. "It probably wasn't that bad, because you wanted to be with them. And when you're with people you want to be with, doing something awful becomes tolerable. Kind of like getting in trouble with friends."

Annie nodded her head in complete agreement. "I think next year we should just avoid the awkward family gatherings and just do our own Thanksgiving with our Greendale family. That would be must less traumatizing."

"I'd rather do that than repeat this Thanksgiving," Jeff said. "Or go to my mother's and have another year of seeing relatives descend into loud drunken arguing like I usually do. Thanksgiving would be a lot better if we just had it with the family we choose, instead of the families we're forced with." He smiled as he looked over at her. "So are you going to tell me about the rest of your Thanksgiving adventure?"

"Okay. But I guarantee you're going to roll you're eyes at least half a dozen times."

As Jeff sat there listening to Annie tell him about everything that happened at Shirley's, he found himself thinking: _why do we have to wait a whole year to have Thanksgiving together? _And he decided, they didn't have to. Not if he made sure they had the Thanksgiving they deserved.


End file.
